We all know water is important. It makes up approximately 70% of our physiology and is critical in many areas, including digestion. However, all the water you see today is not created equal. A lot of it has been taken from a decent source, but then has been bastardized to the point that the side effects are more dangerous than the benefits. So what water do you trust? Use this guide to drinking water and see how your current water intake is affecting your body.

Tap Water

By now you would have to be living under a rock to not have heard that most tap water is riddled with contaminants and bares little to no semblance to its original counterpart. Some of the biggest culprits for ruining your tap water include fluoride, chlorine, and VOC’s (volatile organic compounds).

There has been several studies show that fluoride actually has no beneficial effect on our teeth and bones, like we were led to believe. In actuality, fluoride:

• Increases cavities and bone fractures
• Creates behavioral problems and increases cancer death rates
• Bio-accumulates in your tissues and is often stored in the brain and thyroid which can cause fatigue, weakness, and lowering of IQ.

As for chlorine, there has been an observed rise of allergies in connection with adding chlorine to the water supply. This points to damage being done to the immune and digestive systems, as well as your liver.

Last but not least, with industrial farming practices, VOC’s have also managed to leech into the public water supply, and have created another layer to water contamination.

Bottom line, don’t go to tap water for any of your hydration needs, unless you have a private well or your municipality has taken a more proactive approach to a cleaner water supply.

Bottled Water

Bottled water seems innocent enough. If you have the choice between a soda or bottled water in the store, you would do yourself a favour by choosing the water.

However, one needs to keep in mind that with plastic bottled water comes xenoestrogens which can cause considerable damage to your intestinal system and your hormones.  Not only that, but this author measured the pH of some common bottled waters and they actually registered on the acidic side of the scale. One can only guess that the toxins present due to poorly cured plastics has created much of this issue, and perhaps the commonly held notion that many bottled waters are simply tap water in disguise.

Not only that, but if your care about the earth you need to consider the amount of energy and resources placed into the production of plastic, and the way it is typically disposed of that does nothing to improve the health of this planet.

If you do choose bottled water, look for reputable brands in glass bottles.

Distilled Water

Distilled water is an “ok” approach when your diet is high in produce and contains a wide variety of minerals and other nutrients, but not advisable if you are just beginning your health journey (unless no other options are available).

This is mainly due to the fact that distilled water is much more acidic and devoid of minerals. So to ensure it is suitable for the average nutrient lacking and acidic diet, add back in a pinch of sea salt.

Reverse Osmosis Water

Once considered an exceptional option for drinking water, we are now finding out that for very logical reasons, that it really isn’t the best.

Although reverse osmosis water does remove the typical contaminants in our tap water (as does distilled water), it also removes all the minerals contained in the water which ruins it’s nutritive effects, and lowers its natural alkalinity. Some water experts are referring to it as the ‘white flour’ of water, as it has been stripped of all its original health promoting properties.

Others believe than reverse osmosis water can have a dehydrating effect on your intestinal system as it pulls minerals from your intestinal lining to ‘rehydrate’ itself. If you have become constipated while drinking reverse osmosis water, that very well may be the reason.

If you do choose reverse osmosis water (or distilled) water, ensure to remineralize it with a healthy pinch of a good sea salt, or put it through a system that remineralizes it.

Filtered Water

In this case, I’m referring to any water that has been put through a standard countertop filtration system. This may be a container or a system that attaches to your tap, whose primary responsibility is to just remove the contaminants found in your typical tap water.

This is the primary system most people tend to gravitate towards when they decide to clean up their drinking water. It is very good for most people as it gets rid of most of the offending toxins, and does not strip all the minerals out of the water like a reverse osmosis or distilled water, for example.

However, you do need to do your due diligence to ensure it takes out most of the dangerous contaminants that could be in your tap water, as they are not all created equal.

If you choose filtered water, get a good system that has been proven to remove harmful contaminants effectively.

Alkaline Water System

The alkaline water systems were held by many in recent years to be the holy grail of water consumption. Although they do have their benefits, you need to keep in mind that the pH of many of them is unnaturally high.

So even though they do deliver exceptional active hydrogen and abundant colloidal mineral content, their use long term has a little asterisk beside it due to pH levels that often exceed 10, and can be as high as 12 or 13. This should not be considered healthy long term even if the majority of the population is highly acidic, as it will slowly weaken your stomach acid, one of your primary defences to unfriendly pathogens.

When looking at alkaline water systems, make sure to note the pH of the water it delivers, and if it is under 9, you should be fine to use it longer term.

Spring Water

The purest, most original source of water, spring water has been largely forgotten about with the advent of bottled water and all the filtration systems that have hit the market. That, and people simply don’t want to spend much time acquiring one of our basic human necessities.

Spring water, when collected from a qualified source, is the most hydrating and beneficial water you can possibly drink. Not only is it ‘alive’ (unlike any other water sources), it is exceptionally hydrating, mineralizing, and full of oxygen. Besides that, it is very tasty (when comparing with other waters, there is a noticeable difference).

Natural spring water has a pH of around 8 to 8.5.

To drink raw spring water, you will want to find an approved spring to ensure it is not contaminated. One of the best resources to find a spring near you is www.findaspring.com.

How much water do I drink?

For most people, the answer to this simple question would be ‘more than you are drinking now’. Most people are very deficient on their drinking water needs, and would have a hard time overdoing it.

However, a simple, general benchmark is to consume at least half your body weight (in pounds), in clean drinking water (in ounces). So if you weigh 160 pounds, you would need 80 ounces (10 glasses) of water. This is one simple component of many to achieve optimal health.

Much like the rest of our food supply, it’s generally not the original, pure source of food or water that is the problem, it’s what man has done to it for our ‘convenience’ and ‘well-being’.

We hope this guide to water has been helpful. Which water are you drinking to help heal your body?

This is a MUST READ BEFORE considering a rental furnace, air conditioner or tankless water heater contract.

There seems to be a growing question about rentals in the HVAC markets these days. It’s no wonder, since there are companies putting massive amounts of advertising and sales agents in your neighbourhood to promote the renting of furnaces, air conditioners and tankless water heaters. I would like this to be a warning to consumers everywhere about this trend and to encourage you to find out what you are REALLY getting into.

Kings Plumbing and Heating of Thessalon, has had many opportunities to rent appliances to our customers over the years. Fortunately, we have noted many of the problems our customers would have faced should we have rented equipment to them. For this reason, we do not rent any of our equipment.

Through research and conversations with unhappy consumers, we have some major concerns about rental contracts that are often left unclear or misleading.

Here are 4 things you will hear that may seem like a positive reason to go ahead and sign a rental contract:

1. It costs less up front to rent than buy.
2. You can put it on your gas bill.
3. Repairs are covered for the duration of the contract.
4. It’s easy to cancel.

Here are 4 things they don’t tell you…

1.  It costs less to rent than to buy
   Yes it does. However the fine print locks you in a contract for 10 to 15 years (and some companies are now locking in indefinitely!!!) So when you do the math, you are paying a FORTUNE for this rental.
   Lines of credit, credit cards or even a simple financing contract set up by your banking institution or local HVAC contractor will allow you to OWN the appliance by paying a bit more per month in 5 years or less without any further monthly payments.If you decide, for whatever reason, that you don’t like the service, the workmanship or the rental company, you have no choice for the next 10 to 15 years but to deal with them (unless you cancel and accept the buy-out terms: see below for the problems with that!). You cannot go to another company once you sign.
2. You can put it on your gas bill
   Sure you can, but you can also sometimes finance your furnace on your gas bill, no rental required.
3. Repairs are covered for the duration of the contract.
   Yes, and this seems like the cherry on the cake, however most furnaces now come with a 10 year parts warranty so you are covered for a long time without being “locked in”.
   If you are concerned about labour costs, most companies provide 1-2 years free labour with their new furnaces. In reality, if you buy your furnace from a respected company with a reputation for quality workmanship, then it is unlikely that repairs will be required for some time. If repairs are required, however, labour costs are usually minimal; much cheaper than paying rental fees every month.
   Another note about labour costs: when the furnace is past its warranty period, you can sometimes easily sign up for a yearly plan that will cover your repair costs.
4. It’s easy to cancel if you want.
   It is NOT easy to get out of these contracts and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of complaints online to prove this.

These companies are not telling people that they are LOCKED IN for 15 years. If you wish to sell the house, the new owners MUST take over the contract. This is a ridiculous expectation to place on potential buyers that may not want to carry on the payments for a rental furnace. This means that you are on the hook to pay it off before the house closes.

From the many complaints I have read, many rental companies are charging their clients thousands of dollars more than the furnaces value for the buy-out. The sales people will not go into detail about the buyouts or it would impact their sales when it comes to selling these contracts to wise customers. Once again WRONG!

There are many things in the fine print of these contracts so make sure you read the fine print closely before signing your name on the dotted line.

This is a major concern: when you sign into a rental contract these companies can and are putting liens on your home!!! In most cases the customer is not even aware of it! And what do you have to do to get the lien off? You guessed it, pay huge amounts of money to get out of the contract… it can really cause a mess if you decide to sell your home sooner than you intended.

Why is it that most companies selling these rental contracts do not have a good reputation? Some have very, very bad reputations!

It seems that most of the companies that are renting furnaces not only have pushy sales people, but poor ratings and reviews on buyer beware sites. Make sure, if you do go this route, do your homework and find a quality company. The last thing you want is to have something installed by a company that you regret doing business with but are tied to forever.

In the end, every consumer has to make the choice for themselves. I encourage you to do your research and be aware of what the contract entails before agreeing to it. You only have 10 days from the date of the agreement to change your mind, then there is no turning back and you are “LOCKED IN”. It is nearly impossible to get out of the contract without paying what they tell you to pay, no matter if you like dealing with them or not.

For those of you that question this or are on the fence over the decision, please take some time to do some research of your own. Have a look at these consumer sites and type in “rental furnace or contract furnace complaints” to see what I am talking about.

www.complaintsboard.com
www.BBB.com
www.measureup.com
www.canada-complaints.com
www.scambook.com
www.homestars.ca

These are just a few of the sites online to browse though. I hope I have given you something to think about and you make the right decision to give you safe and happy heating for years to come.